Barth Holohan is the president and founder of Continuum: Private Duty Home Care and the co-founder of Family Partners: Day Services/Residential Home. He started his home care business in 2002, his day services business in 2008 and his residential home business in 2017. Barth has been in the healthcare industry for over 20 years.
“I have a background in healthcare and social work and have always enjoyed being around seniors, so after I graduated from undergrad at the University of Kentucky, I worked for a healthcare consulting company,” Barth said. “I later went to graduate school at Washington University and St. Louis University and got a dual degree in business, an MBA (Master of Business Administration), and an MSW (Master of Social Work), with a concentration in gerontology. When I graduated, I saw the need for being able to help people be independent in their homes, because most people don’t want to go to a community, they want to be independent in the comfort of their own home.”
Barth said Continuum: Private Duty Home Care is made up of a care team that strives to help their clients remain safe, healthy and independent in their homes, no matter what their care needs. Continuum Home Care’s Personal Care Services include: meal preparation, light housekeeping, companionship, bathing assistance, laundry and linen service, shopping and errands, transportation and much more.
“The way Continuum differentiates itself is by being based on what we call a Care Management Model, where we use social workers and nurses to follow the care of people that want to stay independent in their home,” Barth said. “We provide all of the services that people need, which the government doesn’t pay for, in order for people to stay in their homes.”
Family Partners: Day Services/Residential Home is an assisted living community that provides the best possible environment for those with dementia by providing an environment and the stimulation to help individuals live as independent and long as possible.
Barth said the Family Partners Day Services is a Day Center for individuals with dementia who are still living at home and need a place to go during the day that provides them with the help and supervision that they need to be as independent as possible. “When caregivers work, the nice thing about our Day Center is that it provides daily and hourly supervision to seniors with dementia that you can’t get in a senior community or at home. There’s just something special about seniors with dementia being around other seniors with dementia and having activities geared toward them.” According to Barth, he said that at the Day Center, they strive to do anything they can to help families take care of their loved ones with dementia. “We’ll do anything from having dinner made and ready for them, so when they pick up their loved one, they can take dinner home with them. We will order all of their personal care and medical products, we bathe and dress them and just do anything that needs to be done in our adult Day Center so families can interact with their loved one and not be caregivers when their loved one gets home.”
As for the Family Partners Residential Home, Barth said it is in an eight-bedroom residential neighborhood where people with dementia live when they can’t live at home any longer. It ensures a home-like person centered care.
“We have clients that we’ve helped for many, many years stay independent in their home,” Barth said. “For us to be able to provide services that allow them to stay in their home for up to 10 years and longer is huge.”
Barth’s businesses are located in the St. Louis area where there’s plenty of business, so Barth said he isn’t looking to expand to other cities right now, but could see his businesses expanding throughout Missouri in the future.
“As for my businesses, I don’t get too stressed out with running them every day because of the executive directors that manage the day-to-day operations of the businesses, which is very helpful,” Barth said. “I am blessed to have a management structure that is not reliant on me being the only person in charge. Plus, with the Family Partners business, I have a business partner who helps me.”
When it comes to industry partners and working with/helping them, Barth said that whenever he has somebody who calls his companies and can’t benefit from the services, then his job is to refer that person to other businesses who can help him/her. “We help people in whatever way possible, so if that means using another company or community to do a different service, then that’s what we’ll do because it’s not about us, it’s about the client.”